Insurance Coverage for Racetrack Mishaps

[Richard EVO]

I'm posting after hearing about the two EVOs that were totalled at Thunderhill last weekend.

My insurance covered me when I spun my 350Z into the pit wall at the Buttonwillow Performance Driving Clinic. The car was totalled. There was no racing at event, and no timing equipment, and I had an instructor (who was not in the car at the time of the collision). My insurance co. talked to Les Phillips, who runs Buttonwillow Raceway. He explaind that the purpose of the clinic was to learn better driver skills such as braking, steering, etc. There was no exclusion in the insurance policy. They covered it.

SCCA owns both Buttonwillow and Thunderhill, so hopefully there is someone at T-hill who can help these guys like Les helped me.

If the drivers need more info, you can PM me.

[GokuSSJ4]

like you stated , you had no racing equipment. what happen to those that have racing harness, R compound tires and a roll cage ?? Obviously this are things that an insurance company will look into. Or given that they dont receieve the wrong information from the peeps that are in charge of the track.

[Richard EVO]

No, I didn't say I had no racing equipment. I said there was no racing at the event, and no TIMING EQUIPMENT. In other words, it was a High Performance Drivers Education ("HPDE") event, not a RACE, and I did not have a transponder. I edited to post to make that clearer.

[GokuSSJ4]

thanks !!
Even tho that some insurance companies use every single excuse that they can for them not to cover things. Anything that they believe it saids or is racing they try not to cover.

[netzr0]

I wrecked my STi @ Searspoint last may.
The car was not totaled. My insurance at the time "Anchor General" did cover me.
"Richard EVO" is correct about the timing equipment. Most exclusions are based on timing equip, at the event.
My insurance tried to not cover me based on another exclusion: "that they do not cover claims that happen on NON-Private or NON-Public roads"
A racetrack is obviously a private road. After two weeks of working with them, they covered it.

good luck.

[vtluu]

On a slightly-related rant, this is another reason I'd recommend that beginners (including myself) not have any kind of real-time lap timing setup. The other reason is that, at least for me, having a timer distracts from focusing on the fundamentals of track driving: following the right line, applying the right steering, brake, throttle inputs... these are what will make you go faster around the track. At a higher level, once you're a very consistent driver, certainly a lap timer is an invaluable feedback tool. But starting out, I think it's more important just to evaluate your driving by feel, focus more on driving consistently; an infinitely better feedback "tool" is an instructor, who can tell you much more about what you did right and what you need to work on, than a lap time ever could. Through autocrossing I've learned that for me, "trying to go fast" is counter-productive and often leads to errors.

At the track I sometimes have a DL1 datalogger in my car that records speed, acceleration, position, G-forces, revs. After the day is over I'll download the data, compile lap and sector times and reference against video of my sessions. Of course during many/most laps, time is a bit meaningless because I'll encounter traffic (or it will encounter me), but it's interesting to look at my best sector times, combine them to get a "best case" lap time, then compare against my fastest single lap time. It's a measure of how consistent a driver I am; these days the spread is still around 2-4 seconds, so clearly I have a long way to go before I'm consistent enough that a lap timer could be of any use to me.

[dohcvtec]

only thing i'm using to keep track of my lap times is my incar camera :) great feed back tool for the end of the day, you can really evaluate your line going over your driving for the day.

[Boostd4]

only thing i'm using to keep track of my lap times is my incar camera :) great feed back tool for the end of the day, you can really evaluate your line going over your driving for the day.

Agreed, a camera is an invaluable tool to have in the car. As Tam mentioned the lap timer distracts you from what you are doing. The camera keeps the time to "itself" so you can look at your technique as well as your lap times later.

[Richard EVO]

The kind of "lap timer" I am familiar with is a transponder that is attached to the outside of the car. It transmits a signal through a loop at the start-finish line to a computer in the control booth. Then the person handling the timing posts a printout of everyone's lap times after each run session. That's how SpeedVentures does it, and one time they ran the timing for RacerFactory.

How can that be more distracting than having a camera inside your car?

[vtluu]

The kind of "lap timer" I am familiar with is a transponder that is attached to the outside of the car. [...]

How can that be more distracting than having a camera inside your car?
That one is fine but I think counts as "timing equipment" for insurance purposes (going back to the original thread topic). Some people have devices that show lap times as they're running (I believe the HotLap timer system is like this)--hence why I said "real-time lap timing setup".

[dohcvtec]

so i wonder if they could nail you for having a camera in the car while driving, since it can keep track of time? hehe

[1stSAGE]

Which catergory does a Greddy turbo timer fall under? Is it wise for a beginner to have one in the car for unforeseen and unfortunate reasons?

[vtluu]

Which catergory does a Greddy turbo timer fall under? Is it wise for a beginner to have one in the car for unforeseen and unfortunate reasons?
How does it work? Is it just like a stopwatch? Or does it just measure 0-60 times? (Which doesn't apply to a road course... and if you manage to crash your car at a drag strip because you can't drive in a straight line, then I have no pity for you. :P)

I think what's more important--for insurance purposes--is that it's a non-timed event, i.e. not a competitive time trial. (So actually, damage at an autocross would not be covered... though the risk is much lower.) Then again I don't claim to know exactly how various insurance companies handle these kinds of things (and hope I won't have to find out), so take what I say with a grain of salt.

[dohcvtec]

isn't a turbo timer just a device that lets your car continue to run when you turn it off to cool down the turbo? lol

[mikeski38]

I think that NASA can boast that all insured vehicles involved in accidents while participating in an HPDE event have been covered my their respective insurance companies.

[vtluu]

isn't a turbo timer just a device that lets your car continue to run when you turn it off to cool down the turbo? lol
The GReddy timer features a stopwatch function as well--I think that's what he was talking about.